With vile, murderous fairy tale monsters, you’ll live happily never after! Newly released in the horror sphere from director László Illés and Level 33 Entertainment is Ever After, a fairy tale gone extremely wrong. Horror greats come together to put a new, devilish spin on our favorite childhood characters, turning them from pillars of morality to nightmarish creatures that scare kids and adults.
A group of girlfriends arrive at a forest lodge to celebrate, but things take a horrific turn as they realize that the forest is home to bloodthirsty lunatics who perceive themselves to be characters from classic fairy tales.
Ever After, IMDB
Celebrating a wonderous upcoming wedding are a group of women heading to a secluded forest cabin, prepped for a night of drinking and party games with the brides to be. But as soon as they arrive, the party goes sour when a too-good-to-be-true “Prince Charming” starts to take advantage of their kindness. Soon after follows an onslaught of freakish folklore legends hellbent on blood and violence. No one is safe from the likes of the Three Little Pigs, the Witch, Red Riding Hood, and more; the girls must make their way to safety before they too become just another story warning of the dangers of the wood.
I always love when a movie takes a well-known subject and turns it upside down. Childhood stories, like the Grimm fairy tales, have always been the slightest bit spooky (because why are we teaching kids that wolves will eat them if they lie?!); Ever After ramps that up 1000% with characters who aren’t the slightest bit nice, they’re just pure naughty. What makes it extra sinister is the fact that these monsters aren’t going after an “easy” kill like kids — they’re hunting full-ass adults.
And the way they do that is ultra violent and ultra gory. Ever After has some awesome effects and kills throughout its 2-hour runtime. Massive pig-men, a realistic werewolf, and even the effects on human characters are exceedingly icky and very believable. The horrors of our folktales are brought back to their glorious heydays, stories to be feared and taught lessons by, as opposed to the pitiful silliness we’ve grown accustomed to.
Ever After is also graced by a star-studded cast. Horror and genre greats like Mark Sheppard, Michael Berryman, Kane Hodder, Malcolm McDowell, and Bonnie Aarons (who I got to interview personally about her role) appear as the demented cast throughout. I will say while the girl group protagonists were a tad boring, the creature cast brought Ever After to life with theatrics that were part fanciful, part preposterous, and all terrifying. I don’t know what would be worse: people living in the forest pretending to be fairytale legends, or actual magical creatures. Either way, no Prince Charming is keeping me from escaping that nightmare.
Ever After isn’t your normal horror film with a set monster and likeable characters; here, I think we can all agree that we’re rooting for the Wolf and his big set of teeth, the pig-masked trio dealing out carnage, and the ultimate Big Bad at the end that takes this already topsy-turvy plot into an even crazier ending. Fairy tales are all the rage once again, but even if you aren’t into little kids’ stories, you’ll be wowed by a horror-heavy cast with the acting chops to match.
Ever After is now in theaters. Get tickets on Fandango. For more information visit Level 33 Entertainment on web. Check out my interview with actress and horror icon Bonnie Aarons on YouTube!
